HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) -- City officials say unfavorable currency-exchange rates are behind the higher-than-expected bids they received from vendors vying to supply the "Tulip City" with hundreds of thousands of tulip bulbs to be planted next year. Holland, a Lake Michigan tourist destination about 30 miles southwest of Grand Rapids, boasts of having more than 6 million tulips planted throughout the city that bloom each spring. The popular Tulip Time Festival, held each year in early May, is timed to coincide with its peak tulip-blossoming period. The city replaces thousands of bulbs each year that are damaged by weather, road salt or other factors. In 2006, it paid $55,000 for tulips and other bulb flowers. This year, the lowest bidder -- Netherlands-based Unex Inc., which has facilities in Hartford, about 40 miles south of Holland -- offered the city a price of $66,393 for 405,400 bulbs. The bid was more than $10,000 higher than Holland officials had set aside. "I don't think anything looks better than the color of our tulips in May," Mayor Al McGeehan told The Holland Sentinel for a story published Thursday. "But when they come up spotty ... nothing looks worse." The Holland City Council must decide whether to take the difference from a contingency fund or cut 63,000 tulip bulbs from the order, assistant city manager Greg Robinson told council members on Wednesday. The current value of the U.S. dollar is about 0.73 euros, which is a major part of the problem, city officials said. The City Council tabled the matter until its Aug. 15 meeting.